For years, HBO has lost viewers to illegal online streams. In fact, it has been the world's most pirated TV show for the last five years. To combat this, HBO has been dedicating more time and energy into its digital offerings. As Mashable reported this month:

"The continued popularity of illegal streams is particularly surprising when you consider just how aggressive HBO has been in its attempts to makeGame of Thronesavailable in as many places as possible. "

With this massive spike in downloads, maybe - just maybe - HBO won't be top of the piracy list in 2017.

Their strategy, however, is not based on capturing massive spikes in interest. If you look at Netflix's downloads and revenues during 2017, you'll find relatively flat downloads (shown in blue) and ever-increasing revenue (shown in green).

Netflix on Google PlayNetflix on the Apple App Store

Clearly, Netflix have decided to focus on improving monetization strategies with their existing users. There are multiple ways to grow app revenue - simply chasing downloads is not the be-all-and-end-all.

Either way you look at it, online TV streaming products are having a great 2017. Whether it is capturing potentially lost or pirated viewers like HBO or getting more revenue out of your users like Netflix, there's a lot of things going right in this sector.

From telecoms moving into streaming services to live streaming on social media to major moves in making sports available to digital audiences through new channels - streaming TV is making serious waves.